Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to investigate Private and Public Junior High School
(JHS) students‘ perceptions of parent‘s influence on their mathematics learning and
their attitude towards mathematics. One hundred and fifty participants from four
Junior High Schools of which two are private and two are public schools in the Ga
South Municipal were the participant for the study. Perceived Parents Influence (PPI)
and Mathematics Attitudes Questionnaire (MAQ) were the data collection tools. The
(PPI) was to identify the perception of their parents influence on their mathematics
learning. Four subscales: Monitoring, Motivation, Communication and Material
Support were identified for the PPI. Also, four subscales: Anxiety, Confidence,
Enjoyment, and Benefit/Value were identified as for MAQ. Data collected were
analysed using Means and Standard Deviations. The t-test was used to investigate
whether there was a significant difference between private and public JHS students‘
perception of their parents influence and their attitude towards mathematics. The
results indicated that there was statistically significant difference between the
perception of their parents influence of private and public JHS students‘ parent‘s
influence. Also, the results on students‘ attitude towards mathematics indicated that
there was a statistically significant difference between the attitude of private and
public JHS students in the favour of this the finding of the study shows that parental
influence may affect students in the private and public JHS attitude in learning
mathematics. A recommendation was made for Parents Teachers Associations in
schools to encourage parents influence on their children‘s mathematics learning.
Description:
A thesis in the Department of Mathematics Education,
Faculty of Science Education, submitted to the School
of Graduate Studies in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the award of the degree of
Master of Philosophy
(Mathematics Education)
in the University of Education, Winneba.
